Thursday, March 19, 2015

DIAGEO ANNOUNCES NEW NUTRITION INFORMATION ON PACKAGING INITIATIVE

Diageo, the alcohol drinks giant and owner of brands including Johnnie Walker blended Scotch whisky, has today announced its commitment to provide consumers around the world with alcohol content and nutrition information on its bottles and drinks packaging.

Diageo will work with regulators around the world to agree the format of voluntary labels which provide information on alcohol content and nutrition per typical serve. In the United States, Diageo has gained regulatory approval for a voluntary "serving facts" panel for alcohol drinks that includes this nutrition and alcohol per serve information.


Diageo says new initiative will allow consumers to make informed decisions 

Diageo intends to provide the information through its responsible drinking website www.drinkiq.com and on packaging in the majority of its markets, subject to local regulatory approval.

Providing information on the amount of alcohol per serve helps consumers understand how much they are drinking. This could help reduce the misuse of alcohol, a goal shared by regulators, consumer organisations, health professionals and alcohol companies alike.

Commenting on the news, Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive at Diageo said: "Diageo puts the consumer at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to ensuring our consumers have the best possible information from which to make informed choices about our products: this includes alcohol content and nutrition information per typical serve. Currently, there is no obligation to provide such information in markets worldwide, but we know that consumers are increasingly discerning about what’s in their glass. We want to provide alcohol and nutrition information that consumers can quickly understand, instead of expecting them to do the maths."

In the European Union, alcohol drinks are currently exempt from providing nutrition information on labels, but other foodstuffs are required to do so per 100ml. The 100ml basis on its own does not reflect the reality of the way drinkers consume alcohol, and is therefore misleading.

Diageo believes that consumer information for alcohol is best provided per typical serve, so that consumers can understand the alcohol and nutrition content of serves of different drinks, which vary in size across beer, wine and spirits. To this end, Diageo will work with the EU to establish a standard alcohol unit across the 28 Member States to provide an effective way of communicating alcohol content to consumers.

Source: Diageo